Donadoni: Too many of those pesky foreigners in Serie A
You can add Italy coach Roberto Donadoni to the list of people who would like to see a restriction on those pesky foreigners playing in domestic leagues. Speaking about Serie A, which has seen its share of foreign-born players enter the league in recent years, Donadoni pulled out the tried and true xenophobic lingo that others have already employed.
“Maybe I am going to make some enemies but honestly in Italy there are too many foreign players,” said Donadoni.
“When I was playing, there were three per team, and maybe that wasn’t enough.
“But there shouldn’t be more than five per team as there is now,” added the 43-year-old, who has struggled to win over the fans since replacing Lippi though three successive wins in their Euro 2008 qualifiers has reduced the gap between them and group leaders Scotland to two.
I’m sure all of us can appreciate Donadoni’s sentiments but I have never been in favor of restricting the numbers of foreign players. The fact is that Italy has had no problem producing good young players before or after the onslaught on player immigration. In fact, if you want to develop good talent than what better way than to have them play against the top players in the world? If your own players aren’t good enough to earn a spot in the league that isn’t the fault of foreign players. It is the fault of the youth development systems and the players themselves.
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Comments
By Gian Luca | May 1st, 2007 at 6:01 am 
Xenophobia means fear of something/someone strange, and it’s used to denote a feeling that, more than fear, is resentment.
Saying that there are too many foreign players on Italian teams does not qualify Donadoni as a xenophobe.
As for the rest, I agree.
By Bob | May 1st, 2007 at 7:14 am Duly noted Gian Luca. Not the best choice of words on my part. Cheers
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United States
By chuck | May 1st, 2007 at 10:26 am Interestingly enough, every single player on Italy’s WC-winning team played in Serie A in 2006.
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By Claude | May 3rd, 2007 at 9:26 pm Bob if the MSL didn’t restrict the number of foreign players playing on a team than how would the US develop players for the national team? Even now when US players make it into Europe they mostly sit on the bench. Places like Madrid, Bayern Munich etc. want players that already have established a name for themselves. These clubs are not so much interested in bringing up a 21 year old who may be a real star in 4 or 5 years. They want to win the Champions League now and they will let the lower rung teams develop the talent and then snap them up when they are starting to blossom. These young players will only get the experience they need if they can play with or against talented superstars and not sit around warming the bench.
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By ron | May 4th, 2007 at 8:31 am Guess who ended his career as a foreign player in the u.s.a? you guessed it: a certain gentleman named - gian luca donadoni!
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By Claude | May 4th, 2007 at 2:10 pm So did Pele, Beckenbauer and Georgio Chinaglia. In those days in the mid 1970s the New York Cosmos would have 70,000 or more at their games. Unfortunately, the US is such a back water place for soccer that they can only get the over the hill gang and not the mid 20s talent from other parts of the world.
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By Claude | May 12th, 2007 at 1:28 am MLS announced that some of their players make as little as $12,900 a year. You can make more than that working at your local fast food restaurant. A few years ago the lowest salary in MLB was like $250,000. It is it any wonder that American kids would rather opt for a career in baseball than in soccer?
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By Gary | May 13th, 2007 at 6:06 pm I’m so shocked to hear an Italian say something about foreigners. Seeing how the country’s attitude towards anyone that is dark or tan in color, it is of no surprise for this douche to say something like that. Truth is, Serie A these days is utter crap and boring to watch compared to the English and Spanish leagues, take the “foreigners ” out and you have an even more boring league. The league can limit the number of foreigners per team even more, but what will happen, like Spain, the good foreign players will get the Italian passport and there’s your loophole. Shutup and enjoy your lucky World CUp win, it won’t happen again for a while.
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By dick | May 14th, 2007 at 4:01 am sounds to me like you’re just bitter Gary or else you wouldn’t care. Oh by the way the EPL is nothing to brag about either, take away the foreign players and you’ve got the English national team..all show, no go.
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Canada
By Thor | May 14th, 2007 at 12:45 pm I know that Italian A is great. But mostly the teams needs a “alien” to play better. Italian players are great, also in other league, like Spanish, English, etc… Otherwise, like AC Milan (With Kaka and others), Juventus (”Zizu” Zidane, Nedved +++ ), Roma and all the other teams have some aliens. What’s the point to be harsh in something that the soccer fans like. Spanish, English also have aliens. So the best choice it’s to enjoy your team in whatever league you prefer and leave the aliens to the side.
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By gil gillespie | November 11th, 2007 at 4:41 pm You see the thing you are all missing here in this ridiculous discussion about xenophobia is that this is sport we are talking about, not social cohesion. That’s sport, you know, one country versus another, a battle of cultures and all that. Anyone who thinks it is xenophobic to impose restrictions on foreign players doesn’t know anything about the game or what the free movement of nationalities is doing to football. As things stand, in England anyway, the game is a homogenised leisure pudding that means almost nothing. When the 3 foreigner rule applied, Man United versus Barcelona was a clash of English football culture and its Spanish eqivilent. History, philosophy, the very soul of national identity colliding on history’s walls. Now its a mere inter-continental entertainment show that often has no link whatsoever with the geographical identity of the club. Arsenal are not Arsenal, Spurs no longer Spurs, fans no longer fans. Xenophobia indeed.
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